Additionally, there is a large population of homeless individuals. [Kensington] presents a prime opportunity for a heroin maintenance program where addicts could get heroin legally, safely, and free of cost so they dont commit robberies and other crimes to support their habits. Now home to fifty-one residents, this former source of blight is transformed to a beacon of hope. Kensington Ave - Everything You Want To Know About Philadelphia's Skid Row Written by Mariska Lee in Pennsylvania Close to the I-95, and a stone's throw away from the scenic Delaware river, Kensington is a neighborhood in northern Philly with quite the reputation. But the Tracks, like Kensington Avenue, resemble a libertarian utopia gone wrong. The part of Kensington below Lehigh Street, or as it has been rebranded[citation needed] "Lower Kensington" or "East Kensington", is the part of Kensington most clearly experiencing gentrification. We talk about our favorite travels in Europe, as well as travel anywhere in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Kensington is home to a large population of Hispanic Americans, mainly Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, and African Americans. Kensington has become a welter of crisscrossing needs and opinions, a civic puzzle no one's been able to solve. Ironically, even some addicts on Kensington Avenue dont believe in legalization. Worse than plain heroin. 'Savage Sisters' care for those with addiction in Kensington, Philly firefighters rescue dog from house fire in Kensington, A group in recovery helps those battling the same addictions, Kensington teacher-turned-baker makes school sweeter, Man, woman in critical condition after being rescued from rowhome fire, Police searching for suspect after deadly Kensington hit-and-run, Man stabbed to death in Kensington, attacker seen running away, Police: Man dead after shooting in Kensington, 2 people shot in separate incidents in Philadelphia overnight, Police seek suspects who attacked, robbed mechanic inside repair shop, 3 shot outside Kensington elementary school; dozens of rounds fired, 2 men found shot in the head inside Kensington home, Police: Woman shot by boyfriend in Kensington, 2 men shot after confrontation turns violent in Kensington, Crime Fighters: Man gunned down while washing car; killer at large, Suspect in custody after baby wounded in shooting, Suspect identified in shooting that left baby wounded. One such is the cluster of businesses just off the Huntingdon Market Frankford Line stop, where two of Phillys best Vietnamese restaurants, Thang Long Noodle Restaurant and Caf Pho Gha Than Than reside. Kensington Philadelphia News - 6abc Philadelphia This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids.4 With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphias problem. Kensington has always been a rough area since before the 70s. Nine years later and were still talking about it. Kensington is home to a number of community development corporations working to improve housing conditions and economic activity in the neighborhood: Kensington is represented on the Philadelphia's City Council by Districts 1 and 7. SBC News 188K subscribers Subscribe 10K 1.4M views 1 year ago #SBCNews. The white residents fled to the suburbs and people of color and limited means moved in. The situation toward Allegheny Avenue grew even more intense after SEPTA briefly closed the Somerset El stop in January. The storefront challenge is a proactive answer to the inequity created by corridor vacancy. It has always had the El train that runs straight through Kensington. The Columbia Works, 155-59 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Kensington, Philadelphia, PA. Frankford Avenue Baptist Church, 2347-49 Frankford Avenue, Kensington, Philadelphia, PA (1889). The citys violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas.1 Also alarming is Philadelphias drug overdose rate. These sites have proven to avoid overdoses and connect users to long-term help. Two smiling beat cops dressed in crisp, pressed uniforms foot-patrolled the areas perimeter but steered clear of the crowds around Somerset Street. Any given day, a walk down Kensington Avenue yields ample reminders that the neighborhood is the "aortic valve of the region's opioid crisis," as Billy Penn's Max Marin recently put it. This has made it hard for police to quell the trade. As it is just north of Fishtown, higher income residents have been moving further up, increasing property values and rents. The drugs are just too cheap and too accessible. [32][failed verification] The majority of its population is Hispanic or Latino (59.9%), consisting primarily of Puerto Rican and Dominican Americans. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. While Kensington is still the centralized location in Philadelphia for buying and using drugs, some community members, like Bingham, don't believe the neighborhood is the ideal place to get treatment and maintain recovery. Max Marin (he/him) was Billy Penn's investigative reporter from 2018 to 2021. WHYY provides trustworthy, fact-based, local news and information and world-class entertainment to everyone in our community. [35][citation needed]. Fairhill and Norris Square are separate from Kensington with a more central North Philadelphia identity; however, exactly where the neighborhoods separate is subject to much debate and there are people within both neighborhoods who identify with Kensington. Theres a significant number of people who commute to this space to pick up what they need, making the residual effects of the narcotic empire spread far and wide. This lack of message parity is harmful to the corridor. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. The area is densely residential, but crime rates are highest in this part of Kensington and, because of relocation actions taken by Philadelphia's Police,[7][8] it has the highest concentration of homeless and opioid addicted residents. This street wears its heart on its sleeve, triumphs, and failures on full display. No one denies this. Thats anywhere from three to six times the mere 100 emergency shelter beds that were available in June, WHYY News reported. There is a common criticism that officials would never let this happen in whiter, more affluent parts of the city. The generally accepted boundaries of the neighborhood[citation needed] are Front Street and 5th Street to the West, the Amtrak train tracks to the North, Trenton Avenue, the Trenton Avenue train tracks, and Frankford Avenue to the East, and Cecil B. Moore Avenue to the South. In 2017, officials moved to raze a large-scale encampment known as El Campamento that had long existed, hidden out of sight along the Conrail train tracks. (Crime Rates And Crime Stats), Top 10 Things To Do In Harleysville, PA In 2022, Top 11 Things To Do In McDonald, PA In 2022. link to Who is Henry Winklers Son? City workers arrived in the early hours to clear out two homeless encampments the latest dustup in a years-long saga in Kensington and try to get the roughly 50 people living there into housing or recovery services. Postal service considers 19134 (Richmond Station) as the area known as Port Richmond. Philadelphias District Attorney Seth Williams risked backlash from hardcore law-and-order types when he recently stopped criminally prosecuting minor marijuana offenses. You have to bring services to addicts, offer them treatment. The case was dropped in July. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. The town of Kensington was named for the area in London known as Kensington, which had been recently established as the residency of the British crown. This summer, the Philadelphia Police Department canceled seven blocks in the area due to safety concerns. The problem is that Kensington Avenue is largely unseen by Philadelphians. Multiple people injured after crash in Kensington. Juniata, the neighborhood to the north, and Kensington are similar demographically, yet the former is slightly wealthier and has more green space. City data supporting those numbers was not readily available. Police confirmed that a total of eight vehicles became involved in a messy collision in the [] Some people cleared from the street sought out permanent housing or treatment, he said but most of the population wouldnt leave an area where they had easy access to drugs. Driven by a resident engagement process, this is a best practices model for how to equitably manage what could be a tidal wave of gentrification as Philadelphians continue to discover the under-the-radar appeal of the area. Evers confirms that there were coordinated efforts to empty Kensingtons shooting galleries during the stranglers killing spree, and he says this brought crime rates in the neighborhood way down. February 28, 2023 Police seek person who cut Comcast lines on Super Bowl Sunday, causing panic among Eagles fans Approximately 17,000 Xfinity customers in Fishtown and Kensington were affected by . Kensington and Cambria. Corridor vacancy, lower costs of real estate, and dedicated community groups and entrepreneurs make for an attractive location. The area is known as the center of Kensington and was historically the commercial center of the neighborhood. Most dangerous street in PhiladelphiaKensington Philadelphia Drug \u0026 Crime ProblemsViolent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. The U.S. Eva Gladstein, Philadelphias deputy managing director for Health and Human Services, said outreach teams have helped more than 20 people connect with social services during the last month of engagement at the two targeted camps, plus an additional four people on Wednesday morning. The entire estate consisted of 191.5 acres of land, much smaller than the present-day Kensington area. The panel was developed in part by Tony Heriza, a documentary filmmaker working on a film about the Storefront, an art and community services hub set up in Kensington by Mural Arts Philadelphia. History set Kensington up for a steady decline. The avenue runs on a north/south slant and unofficially includes the neighborhoods of Kensington, East and West Kensington, Fairhill, Port Richmond, and Olde Richmond. [53][54] The intersection of Kensington Avenue and Somerset Street was listed number one in a 2007 list of the city's top ten recreational drug corners according to an article by Philadelphia Weekly reporter Steve Volk. In Philadelphia's Kensington district, home to one of the largest open-air drug markets in the United States, crowds of sellers and buyers flock to corners as if there never were a pandemic. He once lived in the infamous Emerald Street encampment in Kensington, and saw how its closure in 2019 just shuffled people to other areas. civic associations and business alliances, which instills hope that development will be inclusive. Last month, the city announced plans to clear out two of the larger encampments: one just north of K&A, the other about a mile south on Lehigh Avenue. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. During the hunt for the strangler, the area was flooded with cops. They paint a picture of a poverty zoo. Why is there so many trash on the streets of Kensington Avenue - Quora A recent piece chronicles the authors adventures day drinking in forgotten Philadelphia. pic.twitter.com/yXU3zfzpGp. They declared a statewide disaster over the drug epidemic in 2017. Watch on Most dangerous street in Philadelphia Kensington Philadelphia Drug & Crime Problems Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. Fentanyl has devastating withdrawal effects, though. Im out here too, and I think its fucking insanity. Neighborhood residents have raged against City Hall for years over the litany of woes from drug dealing to missed trash collection. Philadelphia Kensington Avenue, What happened on Monday, June 28 2021 [52], The neighborhood has gained nationwide attention and great notoriety because of extensive press coverage of its thriving narcotics drug scene, often described as the largest on the east coast. When officials shut down the four bridge encampments between 2018 and 2019, Gladstein said 65% of people went into housing, and of those, more than half remain in housing today. . Man stabbed to death in Kensington, attacker seen running away Police: Man dead after shooting in Kensington 2 people shot in separate incidents in Philadelphia overnight Police seek suspects. Jackie is missing. Public schools in Kensington include Kensington High School Complex, Jules E. Mastbaum Vocational Technical High School, Russell Conwell Middle Magnet School and John H. Webster Elementary School. Stop writing about Kensington Avenue like its Mordor. The dualities are stark; Kensington is still an avenue of pain and trauma, ground zero for the opioid crisis, prostitution, and poverty. This number is shockingly low compared to the overall Philadelphia average of $122,113 but is still better compared to previous years. Philly police release video, photos of person they say cut fiber-optic "You can't buy, use, and recover in the same neighborhood," Bingham said. It is craft fully omitted, in lieu of the salacious and the tragic. Since 2015, 295 people have been shot within a five minute walk of Kensington and Allegheny, a busy intersection at the heart of the neighborhood, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer analysis. Eyes on the Street brings new ideas and fresh voices into the conversation about Philadelphias changing cityscape. These are bakeries, daycares, artist spaces, and coffee roasters; businesses selected to draw foot traffic and fill much-needed service gaps. WHYY offers a voice to those not heard, a platform to share everyones stories, a foundation to empower early and lifelong learners and a trusted space for unbiased news. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. Some, such as the second location for the Baltimore Avenue-based Vientiane Cafe, are just getting started. Officers will issue code violation notices and try to prevent new spots from forming. At first fentanyl was used as a cutting agent to lets dealers water down their heroin with a cheaper alternative to make more money. "[12][13][14], Deindustrialization eventually took hold in the neighborhood in the 1950s, leading to a significant population loss, high unemployment, economic decline, and abandoned homes. Here's what Kensington's community organizations need from you Kensington's Recovery Plan - The Philadelphia Citizen Over the next two years, the city closed down four highly visible "tent cities" that grew along a series of underpasses. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. It is known for pawn shops and check-cashing joints. Along with having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% percent of Philadelphias overdose deaths involved opioids2 and Kensington is a big contributor to this number. Philadelphia Kensington Avenue, What happened on Monday, June 28 2021 Kensington Blues is a photography series by Jeffrey Stockbridge, 36, that documented the struggles and the dark reality of local residents. Those who do not frequent it rely on the medias interpretation and are primarily getting this message: Kensington Avenue is a barren wasteland where no happiness can find purchase. However, sensationalizing poverty, fetishizing small businesses, and minimizing the collective efforts of a community on the rise are the cheap tactics of bad journalists. In 2017 developers Shift Capital, in partnership with NKCDC, IMPACT Services Corporation, and the Philadelphia Department of Commerce launched the innovative Kensington Avenue Storefront Challenge. Addictions a medical problem; cops dont want to deal with that. Dealers stand out in the open, hawking their wares. The city sees hope in this kind of intervention. Philadelphias police force is inarguably overwhelmed by the scope of the citys addiction problems. 'They Need Support': Philadelphia Officials Break Up Homeless There still is no answer for the full number of people out here, McKinney said. He adds that the department does the best it can to guarantee public safety and stop drug use with the resources it has, but that it cant lock up people without good reason. Jason Meyer watched from his wheelchair as city personnel tried to clean up the chaos near Kensington and Allegheny avenues on Wednesday morning. Give your readers the whole story. The few other businesses Chinese take outs and Irish pubs have missing persons signs hung in the windows. Neighbors raised alarms about addicts bringing violent sex crimes to the blocks where families live. Philadelphia Kensington Avenue, What happened on Monday, June 28 2021. The cap will be home to nearly 12 acres of parkland and seamlessly connect Old City to the Delaware River waterfront at Penns Landing. There was a homeless camp set up in a railroad gulch in Kensington called El Campamento. Kensington Avenue also benefits from the non-profit organizations operating there. The median yearly income of the neighborhood is $28,368, ranging from $18,516 to $77,979. That camp was cleared, and another formed. This is Kensington Ave my friend. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Avenue, What happened today, Aug, 2021. kimgary 267K subscribers Subscribe 5.3M views 1 year ago Show more 1.9M views New Orleans Tourist Traps and Things to. [15][16][17], Listed on the National Register of Historic Places:[18], Kensington has a population of approximately 42,000 people according to data from ASC 2020 survey. Speaking as someone coming from this field, it can be unforgiving and thirsty work, defined by small victories and glorious defeats. Heriza became interested in Kensington after seeing a 2018 article in the New York Times magazine about the drug epidemic in the neighborhood. Gun shots are heard at night. Eight months ago, the Kensington Strangler was stalking and murdering addicted prostitutes who worked the Avenue. It is my sincere hope and belief that Kensington is arming itself against the forces of apathetic, tone-deaf gentrification. You can see people with there faces smashed. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia's overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. When resources are limited, you get to a point as a police officer where you ask yourself, Why am I doing something ineffective? says former Maryland State Police officer Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of criminal-justice professionals who favor drug-law reform. Longtime neighborhood residents, business owners, and some elected officials have been pushing Mayor Kenneys administration to fix the untenable living conditions especially those brought by widespread homelessness. A Google search for " Kensington Avenue Philadelphia " yields horrendous images of sad-eyed people slumped over in varying poses of despair. Welcome Van Life Wanderer! The citys violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas.1 Also alarming is Philadelphias drug overdose rate. [57] Rodriguez confessed to the murders and was sentenced to life in prison in 2012. Kensington was the birthplace of the K&A Gang, an Irish American organized crime association known for their distribution of methamphetamine in the 1980s. It happened just after 12 p.m. Sunday on the 3300 block of Kensington Avenue. Looking to be close to Center City by both car and transit, young white collar workers have been moving to cheaper neighborhoods around downtown. The government has shown attempts at trying. Want a digest of WHYYs programs, events & stories? Underpass: Drug Stories from Kensington, Philadelphia - LensCulture City Managing Director Tumar Alexander, who oversees the police response in Kensington, said there will be a zero tolerance policy for new encampments on the two targeted blocks. Subs and Xany bars, subs and Xany bars, chant men in cockeyed baseball caps while pacing the corner, searching the crowd for potential customers. Zombie Infested Shithole: Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Avenue Or theyre just going to go to the back streets.. Disinvestment and general neglect has led to high abandonment in some sections of the neighborhood, catalyzing several grassroots actions from its residents. There have been many petitions by residents to take care of Kensington. If you arrest a violent serial killer like the strangler, you know you made a difference. Palmer laid out his town and sold parcels to many of the shipwrights and shipbuilders who were outgrowing their riverfront lots in present-day Old City, Southwark, and Society Hill areas. But this is an ongoing process. This should not be ignored, and is, in fact, impossible to avoid. [56], In 2010, three women (Elaine Goldberg, 21; Nicole Piacentini, 35; and Casey Mahoney, 27) were strangled to death in the neighborhood. Philadelphia is known for its rich history, cheesesteak, and love for the Eagles. Its a place where many admit they dont want to be, but cant get away from. Philadelphia's most dangerous street.Problems with Drugs and Crime in Kensington Ave, PhiladelphiaIn Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues.
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